Victor K2 XL231

[Blue_2]

Runs? We haven't any engine runs scheduled until the first Sunday in August mate. How far north are you heading? If you like a certain Tin Triangle then Scarborough is the place to be on the 28th of this month...

[Blue_2]

23/06/14 Update

Another busy weekend at the museum; some of the guys were in for the whole weekend to work on various aircraft but I could only manage the Sunday. The Harrier in particular has received a good amount of TLC.
I arrived to find that Lindy had been joined by Andre's other pet project, his Jeep.

Between the lot of us we had several missions for the day. The intention was to run the jet's APU and dry and wet spin the engines. In addition all the hydraulic systems needed a bit of exercise, the tyres needed their usual checks, a gag needed making for the rudder, one wheelset needed a tyre changing ready to be fitted to the jet, and Ollie and Kay had some jobs to do on the Buccaneer too! Good thing we were up to nearly the full strength team then...
I had decided to make the rudder gag, after some time was spent a couple of weeks ago trying to dissuade birds from setting up nest in the gap between the rudder and the fin. I had found in stores some blanks we don't use, these are intended for the vents to the rear of the nosewheel bay underneath. By sheer fortune they just happened to be the right length to cover the gap, so I got on with modifying them to suit. Here is an early 'test fit'

And later in the day, freshly painted up and done!

It may still need the odd bit of tweaking but if it stops our feathered friends using Lindy as a birdbox it's worthwhile. We have left a note for the birds, suggesting there are vacancies in a certain former MPA parked close by though...!
We also built up a wheelset for the jet. The set of wheels we had on site as a spare had one tyre fitted which was too badly damaged to risk re-using sadly, so we picked the best of the decidedly second-hand small selection of tyres we have and swapped it.

The tyres are now inflated to full pressure and will live under the jet for a couple of weeks and be monitored for pressure loss, before they are fitted to the jet. No point fitting them if they just dump their nitrogen!
After lunch we decided to do the APU run

It was Ian's turn to do the FOD checks on the intakes; note his leg dangling from the starboard intake!

Ready to go, Ollie on the Houchin and Rich standing watch for another consignment of doughnuts
There was only a small flame on start-up

All 4 engines were wet- and dry-spun with no problems, the hyds got a good workout too. Rich and I had the usual fun scurrying around under the jet, catching the fuel draining form the collector boxes and the rear bearings. After a brew the jet was put to bed...

Then some of the team declared another brew!


Other site news, the Kitten is all boxed up ready to go out on its travels

We are as yet unsure if Brian the Tractor God, who also 'drives' the Kitten, has to be packed in his own transit case too...
There was much moving of aircraft around site too, as the hangar was emptied for this week's educational events. It's not every day you can sit in a Victor while a Gannet is pushed past the window!



You have to admit, this is a great looking line-up of classics!



Finally, the Hurricane is ready to go into York for the Tour de France doings

That's it from me for a couple of weeks, as I'll be in Scarborough next weekend Vulcan hunting, and at Waddington the week after.

[Sploosher]

thanks for the update Graham, we intend to go to Scarborough too, might see you there.......

[Blue_2]

14/07/14 Update
The weather on Sunday dawned less than brilliant, which was a shame as I intended to get back into climbing mode and repaint the underside of the tailplanes. However heavy overnight rain and a damp morning put paid to that idea.
The show must go on though, Andre made a start on chasing an electrical gremlin around the TACAN system and I went off to watch the Hurricane being unloaded after its return from York during the Tour De France doings before making more progress with my other project, the Flying Flea. See it's own thread for a progress report, once I've written it that is!
I was busy with the Flea for most of the day after a couple of unexpected discoveries required my attention, but I returned later to find John and Andre replacing the lower hatch

Before Andre disappeared into the plenum. A most unpleasant place to be on a warn, close day like yesterday...

While I was at the jet, I popped into the cockpit to see the switch guard Andre had made to cover the rudder PFCU switches. After I made gags for the rudder the other week, the last thing we want is for someone to power up the rudder PFCU's and start dancing on the pedals before removing the gags and chewing the rudder and fin up!

[Blue_2]

28/07/14 Update
The sun was shining upon Yorkshire again this weekend, and Lindy was making the most of it!

We'd decided our main mission for the day was to swap this new wheel unit onto the port bogie, inner rear position, seeing as it had proved sufficiently good at keeping nitrogen on board.

Here you can see why we have had to do this, and eat into our precious and ever-diminishing tyre stocks.

First job was to extract the jack from its stowage in the starboard side of the nose. One of the clever things about the Victor is how self sufficient it is designed to be, and how much of its support equipment has custom-designed stowages on-board the jet. However, it also means that getting a great big lump of V-bomber trolley jack out of a tight little stowage is a challenge, and one that has much potential to be costly in skin at that! We extracted it with little blood-loss though, and were soon ready to go. We soon had the jet's rear bogies off the ground, split pin and centre cap spun off, and the wheel unit carefully removed from the axle

While it was off we decided to take a look at the brake pack, and have a bit of a clean-up of the undercarriage.

Another shot of the damaged tyre, with Andre's hand to give you an idea of the size of the damaged section.

The 'new' unit was then fitted

And its opposite number was spun to prevent flat-spotting of its tyres, before the rear of the bogie was let back down onto 'terra firma'. It was decided to lift the front of the bogie while we were at it, to give it a good clean and spin its' wheels too. Here the wheels are being cleaned up, and the tyres being given a good examination.

And there's air under Lindy's tyres once more!

[Blue_2]

I'm sure most of you think we've photographed the Victor from every conceivable angle by now surely? Well, not quite. A Jet Provost fitted with GoPro camera can get pictures others can't!





With many thanks to Neil McCarthy of the Newcastle Jet Provost Group (http://www.newcastlejetprovost.net)

[Dougs]

its got to be the ISS next surely
you might need a long lens tho!

[Sploosher]

those shots are great, thanks for posting Graham..................

[Ray C]

Great, were these taken this weekend...?

[Blue_2]

Thought you all would like them! They were indeed taken at this weekend's LMA event. Saturday's weather was glorious, Sunday was rained off sadly. Hoping for a repeat of Saturday's weather for our fast taxying day on Monday August 25th

[Sploosher]

the weather on Saturday was great, I managed to get some rather good pics of the models...............

[Blue_2]

Never saw you on Saturday!

Well I'm sorry to say our tyre woes continue. On Sunday while jacking the aircraft up to spin the starboard wheels and clean the brakes a 13mm bolt was found in one of the starboard tyres. This was found to be too deep to be safe to run on, so sadly one of our remaining few spare tyres has had to be used. I believe we are now down to just 2 mainwheel spares.

Now would a really good time for the XH558 guys to cough up the taxyable wheels and tyres they owe us...

On a brighter note, don't forget that Lindy, the Nimrod, Buccaneer, Dakota and Devon will be out taxying a week today! Make the most of it; unless we get more tyres it could be the last run for Lindy...

[Blue_2]

What. A. Weekend. A full 3 days of working on and operating our Victor and some of the other live Elvington residents!
Sunday was prep day for the Bank Holiday Monday fast taxy. The aircraft had been moved out onto the airfield on the Friday. Lindy was in her rightful place on the QRA pan, and the Nimrod, Buccaneer and the Devon were on the main pan where a spectator's enclosure had been built. All Lindy's electrical systems, comms systems and fluid levels had been checked out by Andre during the week too.
Sunday's main job was fuelling the jet. Firstly we pumped an IBC full of jet A1 into her bomb bay tanks, then the airfield's 'classic' ex-RAF bowser added the balance of our order

This fuel is paid for by the museum through donations from spectators from our running days; for giving us the means to buy his fuel the airfield manager Karl thanks you with a little jig!

We then packed the brake parachute, in the hope that Monday would stay dry enough to allow its use. We had to fire up the APU to test the chute bay hatch release and the chute clamp release mechanism properly, so while we were at it we gave the engines dry and wet spins and exercised the hydraulic systems which all behaved faultlessly.
After this we carried out the joy-filled exercise of the packing of the 'chute. This went surprisingly smoothly, and it was soon in with minimal blood letting, cursing and stamping.
So, when we departed the jet was fuelled, packed and ready to go.


Much to our disappointment, on Monday we awoke to the sound of rain on the windows. this soon shifted and the day's festivities began with the hope of the runway drying out so we could use the 'chute. First things first though. The Museum's Dakota was due an engine run which I decided to get on board for. Sadly the damp had got to the starboard engine which refused to play, but the port radial was on fine song!

We then made our way out onto the airfield to watch Steve Pepper carry out the first full taxy tests on the Devon. He was out a good while, getting more confident and comfortable with the aircraft all the time. It was nice to see the little aircraft getting some speed up on a couple of runs along the pan!
After lunch it was time for the jets to do their stuff. We had a reasonable crowd of paying visitors in as the Buccaneer opened proceedings

We must have hit the big time now, as we even warrant our own 'naughty field' it seems!

As well as freeloaders on the road outside. If any of these is your car,shame on you!

Ollie taxied out, with Rich in the back seat for the ride

And gave it a good go at drying the runway for us

The Nimrod was next

With crew bulging out of every window it seemed!

She made an impressively noisy smoky run

However the amount of spray she threw up meant that, while we were waiting for her to backtrack we decided to not use the chute and do a slower taxy run. The Nimrod was soon back

Followed by the YAM fire brigade, without whom we couldn't run events like Monday's. Cheers guys!

Next up was us.

Lindy started faultlessly



Ian, Rich and I then shot off to the top end of the airfield to carry out the turn-around. Once we were in position, we watched and listened for our girl approaching. Because we can only assume of the weather conditions, she made a most amazing bellowing howl at full power which none of us have ever heard her do before and certainly made the Vulcan's effort sound pitiful!


Arriving in a cloud of spray

The jet turned around then slowly trundled back to us for brake checks. I took this shot as she was coming back

Before plugging into the external comms and checking all was well on board. I then waved Ian and Rich in to check the brakes. All was well, with no smoke, excessively hot brakes or tyre issues evident. We then moved away and I cleared the jet back to the spectator's end of the airfield. Ollie was on the throttles and gave us our own much appreciated noise-making session before departing!
We then chased the jet down and arrived in time to see her in with the other jets.
After his successful morning run, Steve took the little Devon out for her fast taxying debut

After which I was able to get a shot of all the day's participating aircraft.

Before emptying ALL the jet's blanks out of my car ( who'd have thought Victor intake blanks could be crammed into a Mondeo estate?!) and putting the jet to bed. The Nimrod team spent the rest of the afternoon putting their jet back into the museum site.
On Tuesday the weather Gods mocked us, giving us bright sunshine and dry conditions to remove the chute from its bay and put the jet back in the museum.

We got the 'chute out without unravelling it from its bag, and stored it away in the museum ready for next time. It's a really small, unobtrusive package...

The Tractor God hitched up, and in we came

Fortunately, given our depleted stock of tyres we suffered no damage to any of them this time. However a wash of Lindy's undersides might be called for...

Returned 100% serviceable. Well done old girl.
The run, from the cockpit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coQ6gW0 ... e=youtu.be

[Blue_2]

Anyone still reading?!

01/09/13 Update

And so to Monday. I found myself with a spare afternoon, so I decided to go to the jet. I don't mind a day on the aircraft by myself- I can frequently get more done that way!
One job which has been outstanding for a while was reinstating the missing red light from the top of the Houchin. It was found when we did a refurb on it that the steelwork the light mounts to had rotted away, so it went on the list of jobs to do. A couple of weeks back I happened to spy a suitable plate making its way into the YAM skip, so I liberated it and took it home. On Monday I found the 'safe place' I'd temporarily misplaced the light to, and removed its knackered bulb. The wiring terminal screws were shot too, so I had to drill them out and make a pair of new grub screws for the terminals. Such fun!
After digging in my stock of classic car parts I found I even had the correct vintage Lucas bulbs for the lamp, so I donated one to the cause. I'm sure Andre will repay me with a pint one day! And so the lamp and its new mounting plate were ready to reunite with the Houchin.

Off I went to the museum, and after a bit of playing with wiring, the drill and some nuts and bolts from stores the lamp was back in place and working as advertised!

It just wants a lick of paint and that'll be job done. This probably seems the least thrilling thing to you ever, dear reader, but I've included this to show we have to and do spend time looking after the ground support equipment as well as the jet; nobody will do it for us and we need it all to work!
After a brew, I dragged the power washer, brush and bucket o'soap out to clean Lindy's undersides off. You can see the difference here already, just after a quick blast over with the power washer!

After a good scrub with the soapy brush and a rinse with the power washer Lindy's inner wings, undercarriage, flaps and nosewheel doors all looked much better. And I was considerably damper...





A worthwhile afternoon's work, I reckon!

[Dougs]

Anyone still reading?!

01/09/13 Update

And so to Monday. I found myself with a spare afternoon, so I decided to go to the jet. I don't mind a day on the aircraft by myself- I can frequently get more done that way!
One job which has been outstanding for a while was reinstating the missing red light from the top of the Houchin. It was found when we did a refurb on it that the steelwork the light mounts to had rotted away, so it went on the list of jobs to do. A couple of weeks back I happened to spy a suitable plate making its way into the YAM skip, so I liberated it and took it home. On Monday I found the 'safe place' I'd temporarily misplaced the light to, and removed its knackered bulb. The wiring terminal screws were shot too, so I had to drill them out and make a pair of new grub screws for the terminals. Such fun!
After digging in my stock of classic car parts I found I even had the correct vintage Lucas bulbs for the lamp, so I donated one to the cause. I'm sure Andre will repay me with a pint one day! And so the lamp and its new mounting plate were ready to reunite with the Houchin.

Off I went to the museum, and after a bit of playing with wiring, the drill and some nuts and bolts from stores the lamp was back in place and working as advertised!

It just wants a lick of paint and that'll be job done. This probably seems the least thrilling thing to you ever, dear reader, but I've included this to show we have to and do spend time looking after the ground support equipment as well as the jet; nobody will do it for us and we need it all to work!
After a brew, I dragged the power washer, brush and bucket o'soap out to clean Lindy's undersides off. You can see the difference here already, just after a quick blast over with the power washer!

After a good scrub with the soapy brush and a rinse with the power washer Lindy's inner wings, undercarriage, flaps and nosewheel doors all looked much better. And I was considerably damper...





A worthwhile afternoon's work, I reckon!

most definately still reading although things have gone very very quiet!!!

[Sooty655]

Yes, Blue, we are still here.

I see you have chequer-plate on top of your Houchin. We have been thinking about removing it from ours. It traps the water and rots the thin steel underneath, and no-one ever stands on it anyway.

[Sooty655]

To be fair I think the chequerplate is what's holding our Houchin together!

We had a drone equipped professional film set-up recording our run. Here are the fruits of their efforts. Enjoy!

[Sooty655]

Great vid.

It would be nice to do something like that at Wings and Wheels, but drones and active airfields don't mix.

[Blue_2]

It is a shame, doing something like that with 655 would be most impressive! (Cheers for embedding it by the way).

14/09/14 Update
Sunday was one of those days where the Victor team found itself at a loose end. Most of the team were absent, only young Sam and myself were in at bacon o'clock with John expected later. The site was quiet, with not many visitors.

The only job outstanding on Lindy was to check the tyres and wheels, we decided to leave that for John to do when he arrived since he enjoys that little job so much! Instead we mucked in with the museum jobs. First item on the list was getting the bowser started as we need to clear the hangar to bring the Halifax outside for a wash either next Sunday or Monday. Brian asked me to take a look as he'd had some issues getting it to go.

After much contortion on my part I got my meter on the battery and found it was fine, showing all of it's 6 mighty volts! So with more cursing and folding myself into funny shapes I cleaned the terminals on the battery, then refitted the terminals and the beastie coughed, chugged then roared into life! We shifted it to the Dak for now.

Oh, yes, the Dak. She's back indoors, as befitting a live 70-year old aircraft, and undergoing work to sort the mag problem on the port engine. Sam was put to work cleaning the plugs which Brian had earlier removed too.

The Mossie is back indoors too. Tony was putting time and effort into yet more of the detailed bits of his pride and joy

We also reinflated the JP's tyres, so she's moveable again. Hopefully the parts will appear for us to get her live once more...

After lunch we got the 109 replica's tail up on the trolley, as it too will have to be moved to get the Halibag out. It's surprisingly heavy; we needed the engine hoist to lift it! No wonder it needs the trolley rather than relying on it's own tailwheel for moving or even standing on.

Before moving the Canberra nose section, Avro 504 and BE.2 in the Handley Page building to make room for the '109 to move in for winter. Overall a busy day of YAM 'furniture moving', with which the Victor team were as ever happy to help!
Back at Lindy, John had done his usual jobs and checked the tyres and cleaned the maxaret tracks.

The red light on top of the Houchin (not the one I refitted a couple of weeks back, the other one) has blown its bulb apparently, so I best bring a replacement next time. That'll be another pint Andre owes me then!

[Vulcan Bomber]

The red light on top of the Houchin (not the one I refitted a couple of weeks back, the other one) has blown its bulb apparently, so I best bring a replacement next time. That'll be another pint Andre owes me then!

At this rate you'll have earned a night out from Andre you wont be able to remember!

[Blue_2]

The trick will be getting him to actually buy said beer. His 'one way wallet' is a thing of legend...!

[Vulcan Bomber]

The trick will be getting him to actually buy said beer. His 'one way wallet' is a thing of legend...!

It'll make life more difficult if he reads that!!!!

[Blue_2]

The Harrier has been getting a lot of our attention recently. I was in after lunch for a few hours on Sunday, and helped to fit the 'engine'. You don't usually get to see inside a Harrier engine bay...

The top of the Harrier makes a fine vantage point for photography too. While I was up there I was able to catch a panoramic shot of the museum in general, and the Dakota being put back in the hangar

As well as the Hunter enjoying the Autumn sun

And Lindy and friends

It's also a fine vantage point for catching Ian and Tom hard at work...

...or not, as the case may be!
The droopy control surfaces were annoying the hell out of me so i set about seeing if anything could be done to resolve this problem. The ailerons and flaps have temporary measures in place, but I have a cunning plan for a more permanent fix. I shall be measuring up for these next time I'm in. I shall also be bringing my gentle tapping sticks to persuade the damage out of the airbrake's lower edge.



And it has to be said, Ian's 'engine' looks damn good!

Back to Lindy, you may well find a certain V-bomber gracing the pages of this month's Flypast mag...

[Blue_2]

13/10/14 Update

Yesterday was a very busy day for the museum's engineering teams. It was intended to take the Devon out for some more taxying trials, and for the Dakota to make it's first taxy run too. This would be the first time since her arrival on low-loaders many years ago that the Dak would move under her own power, a milestone for the museum indeed.
The Victor team were of course heavily involved. As well as the fact that Andre would be captaining the Dak on the day, there was the small matter of moving the Victor so we could get the Dak and Devon out onto the airfield. Andre had been in late last week and ensured that the tyres were all inflated and had moved toolboxes etc. out from under the jet, so in theory all we had to do on Sunday morning was shift the Houchin and steps out of the way, hook the towbar on, pull the chocks and she'd be ready to go. However on arrival on Sunday morning we found we had an unusual challenge to overcome; actually finding the jet in the murk!

It was as you can see very foggy. But we decided to continue, in the hope that the clag so beloved of WW2 bomber crews returning to the Vale of York after ops would lift. So after a fortifying brew and breakfast in the NAAFI we headed through the murk to the jet.

She had a plethora of water-covered spider webs on her, which got Ian and I busy taking arty-farty photos!

Indeed the spiders of Yorkshire had had a convention on the grass under the port wing it seems

We gave the tyres a quick last check, before hooking the towbar on and shifting our last couple of bits of GSE out of the way. I then went over to the hangar to see how preparations were going with the Devon and Dak. I found Steve, Simon, Bob and Chris busy preparing the Devon and fitting clean plugs.

After another brew in the NAAFI, and a 'is it, isn't it' debate over whether the fog was indeed lifting, we decided to get the jet hauled out onto the airfield. Even if the weather scuppered everything else, at least Lindy would have had her gear exercised. So, we ventured out into the unknown...

On the runway, about to be pulled onto the QRA pan. And is that the sun attempting to break out...?

By the Gods, so it is!

But it would still have a job shifting the fog which seemed as thick as ever





The Devon and Dak were soon out too. So we retreated to the NAAFI for lunch and to wait for a weather window...

After lunch, we could see that the fog was lifting, albeit slowly, so we headed back out to the aircraft to do last checks and wait for the weather to clear. We were hopeful the weather would break as we'd had exactly the same weather conditions the previous day, and the fog had suddenly cleared in the early afternoon.
Here the Dak waits patiently at the end of the runway. It's a long time since this old girl set foot (wheel?) on a runway...

The weather lifted enough for us to board the Devon for her slow taxying trials. Our pilot for the day was Simon. The Devon is his baby really, and Steve Pepper our pet former RAF flying instructor would be teaching him how to taxy her.

It's not every day you get to sit in a live Devon, peering at a live Dak through the windscreen!

Sam and I were on board, invited as passengers just for the ride.
The Devon started with no dramas, and after running up the engines to build up brake pressure...

... we were off! Simon soon got the hang of the apparently very sensitive brake controls, and was soon executing very confident, tidy turns on the runway. As we were running, the weather was improving rapidly.
It also became evident we had a photographer stalking us in the undergrowth...!

With the improving visibility I was able to get a couple of shots of Lindy from the Devon as we backtracked

With varying levels of success. Not only did I get a prop in the way this time, but that man Ian again!

After parking the Devon and shutting down, it was time for the Dakota. Up front would be Andre and Graham (yes, we have more than one!), Bob and Steve Pepper. Sam and I were down the back, partly again for a jolly, and partly as lookouts while Andre got himself used to swinging the tail of the Dak around while making his turns. I imagine a 199ft wide runway must suddenly look very narrow when you are turning round a taxying Dakota for the first time! I also had another reason to want to be aboard, more on that later.
Anyway, I got a couple of pics from the Dak, her cabin windows aren't in the best condition so they aren't all that good I'm afraid.
The view across to Lindy, now the sun has finally deigned to come out!

Starboard engine running. And bl**dy Ian in the shot again!

taxying out past Lindy

The view from the rear port cabin window...

The taxy trials couldn't have gone better. Andre seemed to gain confidence in the old girl very rapidly, and mechanically she behaved very well indeed. We taxied back in and shut down, and there were broad grins and happy handshakes all round!

The Dak crew

And the old girl resting after her most energetic day in a lot of years!

We just had everything to tidy away now... But first, a brew!

Now the aircraft runs had been completed successfully, look at how good the weather had turned out!

First the Dak had to go back in.

Safely back on the museum site while the Nimrod looks on.

The Devon followed on, and we got Lindy ready to move again.

While we were waiting for the Tractor God to come back and bring Lindy in, we were treated to a display by a VC-10

We soon had Lindy safely back in the museum too, and while the fence was being put back in behind we unhitched the towbar and brought all our GSE back across and plugged her dehumidifier back in.

All in all a very successful day. But, particularly regarding the Dakota, a poignant one too. 3 people were in our thoughts.
Sadly George passed away before he could see 'his' Dak run.

Andre was wearing his grandfather's dogtags on his flight suit for the taxy run

The reason being, the last time they had been aboard an aircraft it was a Dak. Unfortunately it crashed and, while Andre's grandfather survived, the pilots were killed.
And the third? On Friday I attended the funeral of a family friend. He had been an air dispatcher on Daks and Vallettas in Malaya, and in more recent years was an ardent fan and supporter of Vulcan 558 and our Victor, as well as being an enthusiast of all things aviation. On one of his last visits to YAM before cancer made it no longer possible for himto make the trip across Yorkshire he was able to return to his old 'office' in our Dak. RIP Keith.

[Vulcan Bomber]

Good effort all round there Graham....

Looking at the last pic of Lindy, is Her nose leg "standing tall"?